Friends Old and New
by KnightOfGreenIsles
Summary: Alex Taylor was an ordinary guy. Until the day he meets Annie, George and Mitchell. Rating may rise. Please rate and/or review.
1. Memory

Friends Old and New

A Being Human Fan Fiction

* * *

_Being Human was created for the BBC by Toby Whitehouse._

* * *

Chapter One – Memory

"Where are we going?" Alex asked as his friend Mike took him up the hill.

"You'll see" Mike called back and eventually the two reached the top. On the peak was a small picnic blanket and two sleeping bags lay on top of it. Alex smiled. Even though they were now in their twenties, something like this was just what they needed.

"A camping trip?" Alex determined.

"Why not? The moons out, there's not a cloud in the sky and we're all alone? Isn't that the most exciting situation you can think of?" Mike replied and Alex smiled.

"It's perfect". The two looked at each other for a split second then got in the sleeping bags.

Suddenly, Alex stopped halfway through zipping up his bag and looked around with a look of confusion on his face.

"What is it?" Mike asked.

"I heard something…" Alex said cautiously. "Just down there".

He pointed to a section of the wood by the top of the hill. Mike rolled his eyes

"You're imagining things. But if it makes you feel better, I'll take a look" he said in a matter of fact tone.

He began walking down the hill and Alex followed about two paces behind. He heard a howling noise behind him and turned to see what was there. Suddenly, the bushes rumbled and something large and covered in fur pounced out making a snarling sound and landed directly on Mike. Mike started to yell and scream but it was no good, he was as good as dead.

Alex turned back and saw the creature on his friend. Alex had read many legends so he knew a werewolf when he saw one. He looked on in terror as the beast scratched him across his chest and bit him on both legs twice then scratched him once more across his face. Alex screamed in grief and threw a stone at the creature.

It stopped what it was doing and turned to face him. Then another howl ran through the silent valley. The werewolf turned to face the direction and howled back. Another howl pierced the air then the beast turned to face the direction the sound was coming from and ran across the valley and disappeared into the woods.

Alex ran over to his friend and saw that he was mangled from head to toe. Alex knew that it would be too late for anyone to save him but he had to try. He phoned the emergency services and five minutes later, an ambulance came racing through the forest and stopped about five feet from Alex. They got him in the back, slammed the door and drove away leaving Alex alone. If Alex had been thinking in his right mind at that moment, he would have wondered why the ambulance crew hadn't bothered to take him with them.

He screamed in grief and began sobbing on the floor. It was obvious. His friend had died and they didn't want him to know. He went back to the top of the hill, picked up all of the stuff and packed into the holdall then put it back in his car. Still shell-shocked, he drove down the road and parked in the driveway of his house. Looking around the road, he saw a little pink house on the corner. The house had been empty for years. He wondered, would anyone live there?

The next day, the front story of the newspaper was that a young man had been found mauled by a wild animal. Alex claimed to be a witness and his family and friends believed the story, (he didn't tell them it was a werewolf, who would believe that, he thought) it seemed like the police was treating his death as a misadventure and no one bothered to investigate it.

Two years passed.

A woman and her fiancée moved in the pink house, although the woman died a few months after they had moved in. Since then it remained empty only being filled for a few days at best. Then about six months ago, two friends had moved into the house. They seemed like perfectly nice guys but Alex was too busy doing his college projects and he didn't see a lot of them. Even when he did, they didn't see or acknowledge him.

Until the day when destiny brought them all together …

* * *

2009 kingheartroxas


	2. Greetings

Friends Old and New

A Being Human Fan Fiction

* * *

_Being Human was created for the BBC by Toby Whitehouse_

* * *

Chapter Two – Greetings

Alex woke up, got out of bed, got dressed and looked out of the window of the house he shared with a few friends. It was a fairly cloudy day with no wind to speak of. He wondered if one of his roommates was up yet. He heard a rumbling coming down the stairs and the door opened to reveal one of the very people that Alex had been wondering about. He was about six foot with brown hair and blue eyes. His body wasn't muscular but it was perfectly toned.

"Alright?" the guy said.

"Morning Tara" Alex replied. "Get any action last night?" he enquired.

Tara shook his head, "Nope, the hottest guy in the district and no-one will have me. It's a good thing I swing both ways or I would be pretty annoyed" Tara finished rambling and walked toward the door. He turned as he left the room.

"Getting breakfast before your big day?" He asked.

Alex looked back and smiled. "I'll be down in a minute". Tara left the room and went downstairs.

Alex and Tara had been best friends for years. Admittedly Tara could be a bit of a hothead and Alex could be overcompensating but the two were firm friends that could seemingly never be broken apart. As it turned out, Alex only batted for one side so he and Tara had achieved a few close moments together but they just wanted to remain friends so that's all they remained.

Alex grabbed a cereal bar from the cupboard, grabbed his college bag and went out of the house slamming the door gently behind him. He ran down to the bus stop and sat down on the bench. He looked at his watch then looked at the schedule. There was one due in five minutes. He sighed and started listening to his iPod. A few minutes later, he saw the bus coming round the corner and pulled off his headphones. Unfortunately, the bus was full and it drove straight past.

"Damn it!" Alex shouted. He began running toward the direction of the college but suddenly he bumped into someone and the two people fell to the floor in a heap. Alex got up and apologised most sincerely to the girl he had knocked down. She was in her early 20's with brown hair and a grey jumper with a white t-shirt sewn into the bottom layer. She also wore a light grey pair of three quarter length trousers and light purple boots with a kind of knitted pattern to them.

"I am so sorry" Alex and helped her up.

"It's ok, I wasn't looking where I was going" she explained.

"Neither was I" Alex replied. He cleared his throat and she laughed a little under her breath to show her embarrassment. Alex decided to introduce himself.

"My names Alex, Alex Taylor" he stated. The girl smiled.

"Hi Alex, my names Annie". Alex smiled. If the woman didn't want to reveal her last name that was fine with him, he was about to engage in more small talk when his phone went off.

"So sorry Annie, I've got to go" Alex said and ran round the corner. Annie sighed and picked up a CD that had fallen out of his bag on the floor. It was labelled 'Important Coursework'. She realised that if he didn't have this he would be in big trouble so she decided to see if she could find him. She closed her eyes and breathed for a few seconds. She got a mental picture of where he was and in a second, she had vanished from the pavement and reappeared a few hundred yards in front of him around another bend.

Being a ghost had its advantages, Annie thought to herself. She walked around the corner and cleared her throat and Alex looked up to see her.

"This fell out of your bag" Annie said and handed him the CD and pointed to the open zip pocket. Alex smiled and stuffed back in clearing his throat to hide his embarrassment.

"Thanks Annie, I owe you one" he said. "No problem. By the way, I live just opposite you, in the pink house. If you want to repay the favour, then you know where I am" she said and walked off back in the direction of the house.

Alex continued on and suddenly realised something. It would have taken her at least two minutes to get to where she was and she didn't look exhausted meaning she hadn't run. He put the questions aside for the moment and zipped up his bag making sure nothing important had fallen out. About five minutes later, he reached the college completely exhausted.

"At least I'm not late" he thought and walked into the classroom and sat down in the empty room to wait for his classmates and the lecturer.

Meanwhile, Annie had walked down the road a few more yards. Then checking no-one was around, she vanished from the street. She reappeared next to the house where she, George and Mitchell lived. Well Annie used to live before her husband pushed her down the stairs. Annie put the memories behind her thinking what harm could he do now he had turned himself in. She opened the door using her key and walked in the living room closing and locking the door behind her. She turned to face the last person in the world she expected to see.

The blond hair, the thin curdled smile and black eyes. The unmistakable figure of their former arch-nemesis. Herrick.

* * *

2009 kingheartroxas


	3. Confrontation and Conversations

Friends Old and New

A Being Human Fan Fiction

* * *

Being Human was created for the BBC by Toby Whitehouse

* * *

Chapter Three – Confrontation and Conversation

Annie started breathing heavily. She was very confused. George had killed him a few weeks ago and yet he was stood here clear as day. Clearly getting mauled by a werewolf wasn't the way to kill a vampire she thought. He picked up one of Annie's numerous cups of cold tea left round the room and gulped it down in one.

"Well Casper, pleased to see me?" Herrick asked her.

"George mauled you. We all saw it" Annie gasped.

"Well your little mutt for a friend certainly gave me a ripping of a lifetime but he failed to get me in the one place that would definitely kill me, the heart" Herrick replied and dropped the cup letting it smash on the floor.

"What do you want Herrick? Money? George? Mitchell? Me?" Annie asked. Herrick looked slightly puzzled for a second but then smiled.

"I haven't come for any of you. I just wanted to warn you as you seem to be the most sensible one. If you don't come after us, we won't come after you" Herrick said. Annie looked horrified.

"Why, what is it you're planning?" Annie asked.

"I don't think that's any of your business do you?" Herrick replied. He walked over to Annie and whispered in her ear. With every syllable, Annie's eyes grew wider and wider.

"Is that even possible?" Annie asked.

"Anything's possible in the right circumstances Casper" Herrick replied and downed another cold stewed tea.

"You should really get another chef, these cuppas are the worst I have ever tasted" he said and spat out the teabag on the carpet. Annie suddenly realised what he had said and her eyes glowed purple in anger.

"Get out of my house, you disgusting bastard!" she screamed and the door burst open and a wind with the force of a hurricane blew Herrick from the living room, through the front door and onto the cold hard pavement of the street. The wind calmed down and Annie returned to normal.

"Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?" Herrick asked sarcastically. Annie's eyes glowed once more and the door slammed shut. She watched from the window as Herrick got up off the pavement and placed on a pair of maroon framed sunglasses. He walked round the corner and out of sight.

Annie screamed to release all her stored up fear and washed up all the mugs she had used to make tea to suppress her pent up frustration. She knew that she couldn't tell George or Mitchell about this until they got home. She sat on the sofa and turned on the television. The usual daytime rubbish was on, Annie liked some of it but it tended to get repetitive.

It was then that she tuned into the news channel. The male news reporter was standing in front of a wood where a few police cars were parked and an area had been cordoned off.

"It was reported that many more people have been attacked by a wild animal in this area. What is most mysterious is that the ambulances picking up the victims of the attacks have never reached the hospitals. We'll have more information as the story develops" the man finished and the news report went back to the studio.

Annie stood up and turned off the TV. Was this what Herrick meant by what he whispered in her ear? To control the most basic of instincts? Annie suddenly put two and two together. But the situation was impossible; no one would ever believe her. Were the vampires part of this? Or was it just a coincidence that Herrick had shown up. Annie didn't consider this likely. She turned the TV back on and the news program was repeating the same segment.

She looked closely in the background. There she could see it, a pair of maroon framed sunglasses floating in mid-air. She had been right to suspect Herrick. It was him without a doubt. But what was he doing? Annie turned off the TV and decided to make another mug of tea to calm her nerves. When she had done this, she decided to try what she had never done before, she tried to sleep. She lay down on the sofa and closed her eyes. Within a few seconds, she felt like she was floating and feeling nothing. She was asleep.

About three o'clock, Annie awoke feeling much more refreshed. She stood up and decided to make a tea to calm her nerves. She was just about to add the water to the teabag when there was a knock at the door. She walked over and opened the door. She smiled.

"Glad you found the place" Annie smiled. The familiar figure of Alex Taylor smiled back at her. He walked through the door and Annie closed the door behind him as he walked through the lounge and into the kitchen. It's so nice to be with someone normal for a change, she thought.

* * *

2009 kingheartroxas


	4. Revelations

Friends Old and New

A Being Human Fan Fiction

* * *

_Being Human was created by the BBC by Toby Whitehouse_

_

* * *

_

Chapter Four – Revelations

The conversation was a bit awkward for the first few minutes. Alex couldn't help thanking Annie over and over again for getting the disc to him whereas Annie was thankful to him that she was able to be of some help to someone other than her flatmates for a change.

"So what do you do when you're not saving college students from failing?" Alex asked.

"Mostly just making tea and being myself" Annie replied. Alex looked at her inquisitively. There was something different about her. He could tell. He didn't know if it was just the light that had come into the room or whether there was something else.

It was then that he noticed Annie's foot was on the table but it was halfway through it at the same time. Oddly Alex thought, he wasn't at all fazed by the fact he was sitting in someone else's living room talking to a supernatural being. He cleared his throat.

"You're not quite here are you?" He asked. For a split second Annie wondered what he meant but then when she realised she strained a blank face and looked at him.

"Why do you say that?" Annie asked him.

"Because your foot is halfway through the table" Alex replied.

Annie suddenly looked down and realised he was right. She pulled it off in panic and stood up.

"I can explain" she said, her voice shaking with slight anxiety.

"There's no need to explain, I already know whats going on" Alex said. "You're a ghost".

"You're not scared?" Annie asked him cautiously.

"Why would I be scared? You've never given me reason to" Alex explained. Annie smiled.

"So you're not going to run away like the last person did?" she asked.

"No of course not" Alex assured her. "Just because you happen to be dead doesn't mean you aren't alive and deserve the same respect and friendships as anyone else"

Annie's eyes welled up with tears at this point. "You have no idea how much that means to me Alex" she said. "If only I had met someone like you earlier" she said. She wiped the tears from her eyes and returned to looking at him.

"What do you mean?" Alex wondered aloud. Annie wondered how much she should say. She couldn't exactly go telling him about Mitchell and George. At least not yet.

"Let's just say the people I live with are very much like me" Annie replied.

"Are they ghosts too?" Alex laughed.

"No, but they understand how it feels to be something different than everyone expects. Something that is not exactly normal" Annie explained.

"Are they mentally handicapped?" Alex asked.

"No, god no" Annie said. "Well George acts a little brainless at times and Mitchell is a bit of a hothead but they are nice guys once you get past the masculine traits"

Alex rolled his eyes. He had met plenty of people with those kinds of personalities. Most of them had been alright but some of them were more than a little bit of a pain in the arse.

"So how long have you been …" Alex trailed off in mid-sentence. He was about to ask how long she had been living here but then he remembered that Annie was no longer alive.

"Oh, I lived here for a few months until I died. Then Mitchell and George moved in a few months later and I haven't really counted since" Annie explained.

Alex nodded. He thought about asking about the circumstances of how she died but figured that that would be extremely crass. He decided to try and find out a bit more about her and her flatmates.

"So what do you do when you're not running into ghosts?" Annie asked. Alex suddenly realised that he had. She had been corporeal when she had bumped into him.

"How did I bump into you?" Alex asked her.

"I guess that as I grow in confidence, I can be corporeal if I want to be" Annie replied. Alex thought that made sense. She seemed really confident in herself and what she was.

"So you can be invisible if you wanted to be?" He asked.

"Dunno, I've never really tried. And to be honest I like being seen" Annie replied.

"That's fair enough" Alex said. "So what do Mitchell and George do when they're not here?"

"They work at the local hospital" Annie explained. "They can see and hear me by the way"

Alex smiled. She obviously knew that was going to be his next question. He suddenly realised that he was telling her what he did.

"Well I'm a college student as you know. I actually am fascinated with stories about the supernatural. Makes life seem a bit more exciting" He said. Annie wondered at that moment whether he could handle George and Mitchell's secrets as well.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. Annie smiled and walked over to the door. She looked through the window to see two middle twenties males. One had black hair, wore a leather jacket and was also wearing a pair of cheap plastic sunglasses to protect his eyes. The other was slightly pale of face wearing a pair of ordinary metal framed glasses. Annie turned back to face Alex.

"Its George and Mitchell, they forgot their keys again" She explained. Alex looked a bit concerned.

"Do you want me to go?" he asked her.

"Na, I'm sure they won't mind meeting you" Annie replied. She turned the key and opened the door.

"What have I told you about forgetting your keys?" Annie asked her two flatmates.

"It wasn't my fault" The two newcomers voiced at the same time. Mitchell suddenly noticed Alex who was drinking one of Annie's many cups of tea. He turned around to face Annie.

"Who's your friend" Mitchell asked her.

"This is Alex, he lives across the road from us" Annie replied.

"Does he know that you're a ghost?" He asked her in whispered tones.

"Yeah, he found out. But he doesn't care. Actually he was really good about it" She replied. Annie went on to explain how the two met and how he found out. Mitchell looked at Alex and sniffed the air for a second then turned to face Annie once again.

"He's human" he said. "Annie, are you sure you can trust him?"

"Of course, he's always been interesting in the supernatural. He told me so. Maybe we should tell him about you and George. I mean after all, who would he tell that believed him?"

Mitchell realised that Annie was telling the truth. I mean who would believe him. If he didn't overreact to the fact that Annie was a ghost he could certainly handle the truth about other things.

"Excuse me, don't I get a say in all this?" George asked the other two. Annie and Mitchell turned to face him.

"What do you have to say?" Mitchell asked him. George stuttered for a second.

"I was actually going to say it sounds like a very good idea" George replied. Mitchell could tell he was telling the truth because he stuttered first. The three flatmates walked over to Alex who put down the cup of tea and turned to face them.

"So you must be Alex" Mitchell asked.

"Yep" Alex said. "Which one are you?"

"Mitchell" he replied and the two shook hands. Alex turned away from him to face George.

"So you must be George" Alex asked.

"Indeed, I mean yes, that's me" George said shakily and the two shook hands briefly. Annie, George and Mitchell looked at each other and then mutually slightly nodded their heads.

"Alex" said Annie. "Remember when you said you had always been fascinated by the supernatural? And I said that I lived with people who were like me but they weren't ghosts"

Alex picked up the cup of tea again and took a sip. "Yeah?"

"Well" Annie continued. "There's something you should know about George and Mitchell"

Alex looked slightly intrigued by this. "What's that then?" he replied.

"Well Mitchell, he's over a hundred years old. Not because he's immortal or anything" she continued. "But because … he's … a vampire"

Alex spat out the bit of tea in his mouth. "No way" he said. Mitchell slightly smiled and showed his teeth and turned his eyes black as night for about three seconds. Then he stopped smiling and his eyes returned to their normal state. Alex looked amazed by this.

"I can't believe it" Alex said. "This is incredible. All this time I've living next to a vampire and a ghost and I never knew"

George cleared his throat and Annie suddenly realised she hadn't explained about George.

"And George is something a bit different too" Annie said. Alex took another sip of tea and gulped it down and then returned his full attention to her.

"Oh?" Alex enquired.

"Well Alex" Annie said. George unbuttoned his shirt and revealed the long scratches across the top of his torso. "George is a werewolf"

Alex suddenly realised what she had just said. He gasped in horror and the mug fell from his hand and smashed onto the floor. He turned to look in horror at George. Seeing as how Annie had told him the truth about herself and Mitchell, it was obvious that it was the truth.

Alex suddenly roared in fury and grabbed George up against the wall by his neck. Annie and Mitchell turned to face each other their faces struck with panic.

"Alex, let him go" Annie screamed. George was gasping for air and was on the verge of passing out. Alex let go of his neck and George fell to the floor. Alex then punched in the face and his chest and then finally kicked him in the leg. He finally screamed releasing all the pent up grief he had stored for so long and kicked him in the manhood.

George winced from the pain and lay writhing on the floor. Alex, with all his pent up anger and grief gone came to his senses. He saw George lying there, injured by what he had done in his fit of uncontrollable emotion. Instantly he realised what he done and was horrified at himself.

He turned to face a very angry Mitchell and a distressed Annie. Alex looked at him with the remains of the anger and sorrow and the regret of what he done etched into his face.

"I've got to go" Alex managed to say before he ran through the living room, opened the front door and ran out of the house slamming the door behind him. Leaving behind three flatmates who were very confused, very angry and very hurt.

* * *

2009 kingheartroxas


	5. Forgiveness and Being Found

Friends Old and New

A Being Human Fan Fiction

_

* * *

Being Human was created for the BBC by Toby Whitehouse_

_

* * *

_

Chapter Five – Forgiveness and Being Found

The room was completely silent for a few minutes. George eventually got to his feet nursing his wounds. Mitchell immediately turned to face Annie.

"What the hell was that?" he asked her. Annie was speechless. George stopped nursing himself and faced his flatmate.

"Mitchell, that was not the act of a mad man. That was grief" He said. Mitchell looked confused.

"George, the guy just assaulted you" he explained as if he thought George hadn't understood the situation. In that instant, Annie got her strength back.

"He's right Mitchell. It seemed like he had a bad experience with a werewolf in the past. There wasn't just fury in his eyes. He was absolutely terrified" She explained.

Mitchell took all the information in and suddenly realized his flatmates were right. If they could help him get over his grief, maybe he could stop himself from exploding emotionally like that ever again.

Annie walked over toward the door.

"I'll go and look for him" she said and floated through the door. The two remaining residents decided to clear up to help take their mind off what had just happened.

Annie walked along the pavement and after a few moments, came across an alleyway leading down towards the canal. She looked down it and saw the dishevelled figure of Alex lying face down in a puddle.

She went over to him and helped him up. He saw who it was and turned away.

"Something pretty bad must have happened to you to act like that" Annie said. Alex turned to face her.

"It was the worst thing that has ever happened to me" he said choking on his words occasionally. Annie put her ghostly arm around him and he finally released his emotional barrier and began sobbing openly into her chest.

Annie lightly stroked his back to comfort him.

"What happened?" she asked. Alex stopped sobbing and dried his eyes.

"I was out camping with a friend when I heard something. We went to see what it was and then my friend was attacked. By... By ... A ten foot tall werewolf" he explained. "I threw a stone at it and came toward me but it ran away when it heard howling in the distance. I called an ambulance for him. It came but it drove away without me in it"

Annie gasped. "I never told anyone" Alex explained. "I figured no one would believe the truth" He turned to face Annie when he had finished explaining.

"I'm so sorry Annie" Alex said. "I never wanted to hurt George"

Annie smiled and wiped the tears from his face. "I know. Are you ready to apologize to George and Mitchell?" she asked. Alex nodded.

"But there's something I have to do first" he said. Annie understood and got to her feet.

"Ok, I'll be at home when you're ready" she said and vanished from sight. She reappeared next to George who jumped slightly when he saw her.

"Well?" Mitchell asked her. Annie walked over to him. "His best friend was killed by a werewolf" Annie explained. George gasped and walked over to her.

"Do you think it was ...?" George asked.

"No" Annie said. "He said. He said that it was ten feet tall, trust me, you're nowhere near that big" Annie explained.

George looked a little affronted but also he looked majorly relieved. About half an hour later, the three friends were sat on the sofa when there was a knock at the door. George went to the door and opened it. It was Alex.

"George, I am so sorry" Alex choked.. All three of the flatmates at that moment were in no doubt that he was telling the truth. George walked over to him and let him cry into his chest stroking his back.

After a minute or two, Alex got himself together.

"I forgive you Alex" George said. "Besides that pain was nothing compared to what I go through once a month" he joked.

At first, Alex thought he was being hurtful but then realised he was joking and laughed.

"Friends?" George asked Alex.

Alex smiled and shook George by his outstretched hand.

"Friends" he replied

Alex went outside for a split second then came back in carrying two bags full of chips.

"Anyone hungry? He asked. He suddenly realised Annie couldn't eat but she smiled as if to say it's fine. About five minutes later, the four new friends were sat around the living room watching a dvd of Casablanca.

"So what do you think about living next door to a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost?" Mitchell asked Alex.

"I think ..." said Alex after a short silence. "I'm going to like it"

* * *

THE END

2009 kingheartroxas


End file.
